death and enraged that no one else seems to care. After attempting to rebel against the social order, he is forced into isolation by Mustapha Mond. He becomes determined to live out a monkish life and renounce worldly pleasures. His plan goes awry, however, after World State citizens discover his hermitage. Their unrelenting fascination is unbearable to him, and it drives him to take his own life.

Lenina Crowne

Lenina is an unsterilized woman, called a “freemartin,” who is employed as a vaccination worker at the Hatchery and Conditioning Center. She is described as having lupus, which makes her eyes purple and teeth coral. But she is also uncommonly pretty, with wavy, auburn hair. She has had many sexual partners, most recently (and most exclusively) Henry Foster, but expresses to her friend Fanny that she’s growing tired of promiscuity. She finds herself interested in Bernard for his unusual looks and behavior.

After meeting John, she is instantly attracted to him and falls in love with him. She becomes annoyed with Bernard and Henry and instead obsesses over how to seduce John. She doesn’t understand why he won’t give in to her advances, and her feelings for him take a turn after he attacks her and calls her a whore.

She attempts to reconcile with him after his exile when a crowd is cajoling him, but he turns on her violently. Whether or not she survives his attack is left unclear.

Mustapha Mond

As the Resident World Controller for Western Europe, Mustapha Mond is the highest-ranking character in the novel. He and ten other Controllers are responsible for making sure society remains in accordance with “His Fordship’s,” or Henry Ford’s, vision. Mustapha is described as being of medium height and having dark hair, a hooked nose, full lips, and dark, piercing eyes.

Mustapha is fascinated by rebels but believes such people cannot be allowed to live among society, for they will create disorder and upset the manufactured happiness of the people. When he sends Bernard and Helmholtz off to live on an island, he believes he is doing them a favor by allowing them to live out their days with people he feels are more interesting than the citizens of the World State. Mustapha is particularly interested in John, which is why he lets him live as a hermit; he views John as just another experiment.

Years prior to the events in the novel, Mustapha was also a rebel. He considers his accepting the position of Controller as a way of making amends for his behavior, a sacrifice he needed to make in order to do well by society. He believes that this sacrifice gives him the right to be secretly deviant, and he keeps a hidden collection of old, banned books in his study.

Linda

Linda is a Beta and the birth mother of John. Formerly a worker in the Fertilization Room, she becomes trapped at the reservation in Malpais after getting separated from the Director, her lover at the time.

Despite taking all the necessary contraceptive precautions, Linda became pregnant with John. She raises John on the reservation, where she is treated as an outcast and reviled by all the local women for sleeping with their husbands. Though she loves John, she is also ashamed of his socially unacceptable birth and is violent with him when he attempts to interrupt her trysts with local men, including Popé.

Because she has not had access to the advanced medical care and anti-aging treatments from home, she has visibly aged and has wrinkles, floppy skin, and missing teeth, which disgust the characters from the World State, particularly Lenina. Linda is desperate to return to the World State, and upon doing so, she attempts to reunite with the Director. After he rejects her, she takes soma constantly, driving herself to an early death.

The Director (Thomas)

Thomas, also called Tomakin and the D.H.C. by some characters, is the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning for Central London and Bernard’s boss. He is the first prominent character readers meet in the novel. He plans to exile Bernard to Iceland for his unorthodoxy, but he doesn’t get the chance. After being publicly humiliated when Linda reveals that he fathered her child, he resigns from his job.

Fanny Crowne

Fanny is Lenina’s friend; she shares the same last name as her, although they are unrelated. Fanny is a worker in the Bottling Room and a “freemartin.” She is nineteen and has brown hair. She chastises Lenina for going out with Henry Foster too exclusively. She represents a quintessential woman according to World State standards.

Henry Foster

Henry is Lenina’s most frequent lover. At the beginning of the novel, he helps the Director show students the Hatchery and Conditioning Center, where he works. He is a conventional Alpha male: strong, tall, and attractive, with fair hair and ruddy skin. Yet, he fails to protect Lenina at the end of the novel when she is attacked by John. Instead, he runs away.

Benito Hoover

Benito is one of Lenina’s former lovers. She remembers him as being particularly hairy. He is surprised by Lenina’s interest in Bernard and is regarded as perpetually good-natured by Bernard.

The Arch-Community-Songster

The Arch-Community-Songster of Canterbury is the most esteemed guest at a party Bernard attempts to throw so he can showcase his friendship with John. When John refuses to attend, however, the Arch-Songster is disappointed and blames Bernard for making false promises, embarrassing Bernard in front of his guests. The Arch-Songster later sleeps with Lenina, who doesn’t enjoy their time together because she’s in love with John.

Popé

Popé, a native inhabitant of the New Mexico reservation Malpais, is one of Linda’s frequent lovers. He gives Linda the Shakespeare collection John reads from. When John attacks him with a knife one night after finding him in bed with Linda, Popé doesn’t fight back, but simply disarms John and then laughs at him.